The embodiments of the present invention generally relate to drawers that slide in and out of a cabinet. In particular, they relate to mechanisms that control the rate at which a drawer slides in and out of a cabinet such that an abrupt stop of the motion of the drawer is avoided when arriving at a fully closed or open position.
There are presently available a number of rate controlling mechanisms, such as damping and springing mechanisms, that are provided with a drawer or lid of cabinets. Some of the simpler mechanisms include rubber or foam bumpers between the face of the cabinet and the drawer or slide mechanism. Though the bumpers soften the impact of the drawer as the drawer closes, the bumpers are not optimal for heavy or fast moving drawers, and the bumpers are not effective for abrupt stops.
Other rate controlling mechanisms include a springing mechanism located proximate the drawer or lid. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,308 to Reuter et al., a cabinet is provided with a curved, upward-swinging door with an opening mechanism that includes a pair of opposed pivot arms. Each of the arms is connected to a gas spring that is connected to the end walls of the cabinet. Each pivot arm includes a circular disk portion integrally formed with a tangential arm and a mounting bracket for mounting each pivot arm to the door. The rod of the gas spring faces downwardly, while the cylinder end faces upwardly so that oil is kept contained within the cylinder. When opening the door, each arm rotates around a central boss of the circular disk in order to cause the gas spring to generate a force tangential to the rotatably mounted circular disk. The force of the gas spring causes the door to continue to open. However, the primary motion of the door is swinging, rather than sliding, and the use of a complexly designed arm is necessary to bear the load of the door and the force of the gas spring while swinging.
Other springing mechanisms are available for drawers that slide. Generally, these mechanisms are integrated with the rails in a complicated manner that often do not allow for easy modifications to conventional drawer-slide rail systems. Furthermore, many of the slide mechanisms only provide for a soft-close action but do not address both the soft-close action and the soft-open action. One example is U.S. Pat. No. 6,752,478 to Francz, which shows a damping mechanism borne on the pull-out rail toward the front of the drawer and parallel to the sides of a drawer. The damping mechanism travels with the movement of the pull-out rail, and remains inoperative until the drawer begins to fully close and an abutment presses against the plunger of the damping mechanism. When the abutment presses against the plunger, the cylinder causes dampening of the drawer and prevents the front panel from striking against the body side walls with a great force. A pull-in device arranged at the rear of a support rail is included to couple a central rail, which runs between the pull-out rail and the support rail. The pull-in device pulls the central rail, together with the pull-out rail, into the furniture carcass, with this movement being dampened by the damping mechanism.
Moreover, many combinations of rate controlling mechanisms and drawer-slide rail systems remain visible when in operation primarily because of space constraints. Opportunities for food and/or fluid to interlace or buildup within the drawer slides are greatly enhanced with visible drawer slides. This can adversely affect the operability of the drawer slides by gumming the oil, increasing the friction between the slides, and increasing the risk of corrosion.
Thus, there remains a need for a drawer and slide mechanism system that allows the drawer to fully close or open gradually without an abrupt stop in order to provide a soft-close action and/or open action. There also remains a need to integrate such system with a concealed drawer-slide rail system.